Fox News Loves Clint Eastwood!

AP reported yesterday that Twitter was “instantly ablaze” with comments mocking Clint Eastwood’s bizarre presentation to the Republican convention that included an imaginary conversation with “President Obama” in an empty chair. The wire service said that a Twitter account called @InvisibleObama had 30,000 followers half a day later. But on Fox News, the pundits fell all over themselves praising Eastwood and, of course, attacking the left for good measure while they were at it. My vote for comment of the day goes to Laura Ingraham who called Eastwood “Don Rickles in American politics.”

As traffic on Twitter about the actor’s bizarre speech spiked, the Romney campaign rushed out a statement even as their candidate was delivering his acceptance speech.

“Judging an American icon like Clint Eastwood through a typical political lens doesn’t work,” the statement said. “His ad-libbing was a break from all the political speeches, and the crowd enjoyed it.”

Coincidentally, those same sentiments were echoed repeatedly on Fox the next day.

Of the shows we saw, going chronologically, let's start with Fox News contributor Janine Turner on America Live. She called Eastwood’s performance “fantastic!” and “very, very important.” She added, “He’s an actor! He’s gonna say things and do things a little bit quirky and different. But what he said is that we own our country and that politicians are our employees. That’s, that’s brilliant! It needed to be said.”

Guest host Alisyn Camerota initially questioned whether Eastwood had been “appropriate for the moment.” But later, she noted his age of 82 and then prompted asked, “Does he deserve a bit of a pass if his delivery was sometimes uncomfortable or awkward?”

Predictably, Turner thought so. “We should be applauding this. The liberals? They’re going to be ugly because they’re scared! Because Clint Eastwood walked on that stage and endorsed Mitt Romney!”

Next up: Mike Huckabee on Your World.

After playing a clip of MSNBC pundits panning Eastwood, host Neil Cavuto said, “Maybe we were at different conventions. This was a silly thing, it wasn’t meant to be this great cerebral moment.”

Huckabee called Eastwood “a great American” who “loves this country.” Nevertheless, even he seemed to struggle for words to describe the bizarre performance. “I thought it was, you know…” His voice trailed off. Then he added, “It was Clint Eastwood, for God’s sake.”

Cavuto argued that Eastwood’s teleprompter had “gone down” and he was forced to “wing it.” For the record, CBS News reported:

One Republican official told CBS News political director John Dickerson said Eastwood was not scripted because they didn’t want to “rein in his creativity.” But when asked after the speech, a senior Romney adviser rolled his eyes, and acknowledged “it was a distraction.” One they couldn’t turn off.

Finally, on The O’Reilly Factor, Geraldo Rivera had a vastly different take. He didn’t mince words as he called Eastwood’s speech “buffoonery” and said that it detracted from Romney’s “terrific… strong and humane” speech.

But before he got a chance to say a word, guest host Laura Ingraham preempted his criticisms with a positive spin: “I loved Clint Eastwood from beginning to end. Because it had everyone on edge. It was an unscripted moment in a buttoned-up convention… and it drove the left absolutely bonkers… I loved every minute of it.”

Rivera retorted, “If you’re going to do stand up comedy, you have to have good writing… I thought it was dreadful.”

Ingraham said Eastwood is a jazz pianist “so he’s up there improvising.” She called him a “warm up” for Marco Rubio. Then she added, “This is Don Rickles in American politics.”

The only problem, Foxies? America doesn’t see it the way you do.

The complete Eastwood speech is the first video below, followed by the three Fox News segments discussing it.

Showing 19 reactions

I’ve always seen Sabato presented as a political science professor and he comments on politics, polling, etc. I’ve never seen him on Fox talking about Italy. After all, America is so exceptional, they never have time to talk about any other country… except Mexico and Iran.

@Ellen
I see him as the foxies’ their go-to guy for a supposedly outsider’s opinion and he’s often called on to talk about the USA over here. He seems to have a dual role as an authority on Italy over there (perhaps because of his name) and on the USA over here. We have far better commentators on Italy, mostly because they actually live here and get their information from all possible sources. Sabato clearly got his from the establishment during the previous administration.
Anyway, I was surprised to read that Sabato had dissed the performances both of Eastwood and Romney, even though he then brushed both cases aside as irrelevant. He’s also not on the same page as Fox with regard to the % of people still undecided. IMO, yet more traces of rebellion in the ranks as the fox faithful increasingly realise how unfair and unbalanced (aka loony) their favourite channel can and has always been.
Bemused aka Pollyanna (=ever hopeful)

@ Lakeview Greg- Not only would Hogan know better how to cut a promo,but from his wrestling days he’d know how to handle a chair better. Rowdy Yates handled that spindly little thing alright,but I wonder how he’d have done against an upholstered sofa or loveseat and I think a leather covered Chesterfield wingback chair would have kicked his 80 something year old butt.When you come to think of it his performance was nearly the perfect image for the current Republican party a slightly dotty, angry old white guy debates an imaginary president.

Has anybody seen Prof. Larry Sabato (U. of Virginia) lately? Although a staunch fan of most wingnut positions, he was less than enthusiastic about Clint’s performance in an interview with Arthur Zampiglione in this morning’s La Repubblica. He also dissed the humanizing impact of Romney’s speech, but brushed both effects aside as being insignificant. According to Prof. Sabato, only 5% of the electorate is still undecided whereas the foxies have it at almost 25%.

Will Prof. Sabato be less than welcome on Fox in the near future? Stay with us to find out (though we won’t even try to speculate on the fear-inducing effect that might have on your life).

I recall Sean had a temper tantrum after Eastwood’s “Halftime in America” Super Bowl ad; he and other wingnut noisemakers thought the lifelong Republican committed an act of betrayal by supporting the President — to the point where Eastwood had to issue a public denial afterwards.

What ya wanna bet Hannity will find Clint Eastwood talking to an empty chair for more than 5 minutes over his allotted time “a display of thespian brilliance”?

“The convention is now in ruins. Mitt’s big night is laying at the bottom of the Eastwood rubble, as it’s the only thing people are talking about.

Well done, Mr. President. Well done. Once again, you out foxed all your opponents. Don Barzini is dead, so is Phillip Tattaglia — Moe Greene — Hyman Roth — the RNC Convention; today you settled all family business. You truly are a ninja master."

turner oinked "…But what he said is that we own our country and that politicians are our employees. Thatâs, thatâs brilliant! It needed to be said.â

Duh. See, here’s the problem. neocon/teabaggers forget this very important point. Politicians WORKFOR US! Stupid neocon/teabaggers in today’s repubic party believe that they’re doing us a favor by running for office, when the truth is, we do them the favor by voting for them. neocons are too stupid to realize that instead of being reminded of this, it’s something they should never forget. Stupid fucks.

The version over here is that Clint Eastwood had no success with film-makers in the USA so he came to Italy and became a star in spaghetti westerns shot in Spain or Morocco. He was so completely in keeping with the comic book characters! I’ve always liked the tongue-in-cheek tone of those westerns but Eastwood never cottoned on that he was an intelligent parody of Tom Mix-ing-cement (aka Tex Willer) and Spillane (sp?)
As it turned out he was a better actor than the Americans had thought, and the benefits of participating in genuinely witty films have clearly worn off as the years passed. He was rather more vulgar than witty, but older folks in the audience clearly appreciated the vulgarity. Pitiful and hence not worthy of further note. Paraphrasing an old saying: “Let doddering old farts lie”.